SAHIWAL – The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has made all the arrangements to hold day-long polling process for NA-162 Sahiwal-III by-election on Monday.
The polling will start at 8:00am and will continue till 5:00pm without any formal interval.
There are total seven cadidates in the run for the NA seat. However, main contest is expected among PML-N’s Ch Muhammad Tufail, Murtaza Iqbal of PTI and PPP candidate Shahzad Saeed Cheema.
The ECP said that there are over 300,000 registered voters in the constituency. Out of the total voters, about 175,000 are male voters and some 130,000 female voters.
For smooth and peaceful polling on Monday, as many as 293 polling stations will be set up, out of which 83 will be for males, 84 for females, and 126 will be combined.
Meanwhile, about 22 polling stations have been declared sensitive by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
Elaborated security arrangements will be adopted to avert any unpleasant incident. Heavy contingents of police will be present to ensure transparency and maintain law and order. Army personnel would also be deployed outside every polling station.
The seat fell vacant, when the Supreme Court of Pakistan upheld a decision of the Election Tribunal to declare the election of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Rai Hasan Nawaz Khan null and void on the allegation of not declaring his assets with the ECP.
In the 2013 general elections, Rai Hasan Nawaz Khan bagged 88,974 votes while independent candidate Haji Mohammad Ayub Khan got 75,756 votes.
Later, Haji Ayub had challenged Rai Hasan’s victory with the Election Tribunal, alleging that Rai had not declared all of his assets with the Election Commission of Pakistan. He also accused the PTI lawmaker of being a loan defaulter.
At which, the Election Tribunal ordered the ECP to hold a by-election on the National Assembly seat, however Rai Hasan Nawaz Khan moved Supreme Court against the decision.
Afterwards, deciding the case, the apex court also upheld the tribunal’s decision, rejecting the plea filed by Rai Hasan Nawaz Khan.
